CCTV shows moments before police sergeant was fatally shot inside station

The footage tracked Louis De Zoysa’s arrest through to moments before Sergeant Matt Ratana was fatally shot

CCTV recounting the moments before a custody officer was fatally shot in a police station has been released.

The footage was shown to a jury on Thursday as part of an ongoing murder trial into Sergeant Matt Ratana’s death at Croydon custody centre in the early hours of 25 September, 2020.

Louis De Zoysa - who denies murder - is accused of shooting the sergeant with an antique revolver that was concealed in a holster as he was being detained at the centre.

Louis De Zoysa denies murdering the police officer (PA)

In eight minutes and 47 seconds of footage shown to the jury at Northampton Crown Court, De Zoysa can be seen being stopped and searched on London Road, Norbury, south London before being arrested and taken to the custody block.

It then shows the moments before Sergeant Ratana, 54, was fatally shot just after 2am, before cutting to immediately after, with De Zoysa being wrestled to the floor and the gun kicked away.

The prosecution says that the suspect was still handcuffed when the Metropolitan Police officer was shot and deliberately fired the weapon without warning into his chest after likely concealing the revolver and a holster “under one of his armpits”.

The defendant was 23 when the shooting happened and was living in a flat at a farm in Banstead, Surrey, having bought the gun, which was legal to own due to its antique status, on the internet in June 2020.

It had not been discovered during the stop and search, the trial previously heard.

The suspect was restrained by fellow officers after Sergeant Matt Ratana was shot (PA)

Earlier in the hearing, a ballistics expert demonstrated how the antique revolver was allegedly used to kill.

Forensic scientist and ballistics expert Anthony Miller told the court he had examined the revolver and the ammunition that was recovered after the incident.

Asked by prosecutor Duncan Penny KC if the gun went off by accident during his rigorous testing, Mr Miller said it did not.

Speaking in short and simple sentences so De Zoysa, who suffered brain damage after being hit in the neck by a bullet during the incident, could follow proceedings, Mr Miller said: “I dropped it on the ground, I struck it with a cloth-faced hammer and I generally treated it roughly.”

Sergeant Ratana worked at Croydon custody centre in south London (PA Media)

Imran Khan KC, for De Zoysa, told the jury on Wednesday that the defendant was suffering an autistic meltdown at the time of the shooting and “did not mean to or want to kill Sergeant Ratana, or to cause him really serious harm”.

De Zoysa, who appeared in the dock for the third day in a row on Thursday in a wheelchair and with his right arm in a sling, denies murder.

The trial continues.